Manitoba woman stabbed to death after intervening in domestic dispute

Brandon, Manitoba, woman stabbed to death after intervening in domestic dispute

BRANDON, Man. — A 37-year-old woman was stabbed to death Tuesday in Brandon after she apparently tried to help another woman involved in a domestic dispute.

The incident ended with the police tactical-response unit forcing its way into an apartment to arrest a 51-year-old male suspect and rescue the second woman.

It’s the Manitoba city’s first homicide since January 2010.

Some time after 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, an acquaintance of a female resident of the apartment called police for help in retrieving property from the apartment.

Raymond Garson, who lives next door, said a young woman came to his house at 2 a.m. and asked to use his phone.

“So I let her use the phone,” Garson said. “She phoned police, and she said that there was something going on next door. What I don’t know.”

About 20 minutes later, the same young woman was in tears and banging on Garson’s door, again wanting to use the phone. She indicated her “grandmother” was lying in the back alley behind the apartment, he said. She then called 911.

“She said, ‘I think my grandma’s dead. I think my grandma’s dead.’ I didn’t dare go in the back alley by myself,” Garson said, adding he also phoned 911 after she rushed out the door.

Garson said that, along with the young woman and her grandmother, there was a 26-year-old man with them in the back lane.

While officers were on en route, a call went out for medical assistance. The first woman who had called police for aid in retrieving property had been stabbed in the back lane behind the apartment.

Police said the victim received a single stab wound to the upper body. When police arrived, witnesses told them a man had been seen pulling the second woman toward a basement suite of the apartment block.

Officers tried without success to make contact with the suspect inside the suite. Special police teams, including the tactical response unit and crisis negotiators, were called in.

Authorities told the building’s other tenants to leave and nearby residents were asked to stay indoors.

Around 6:30 a.m., the neighbourhood was shaken by a pair of large explosions as the tactical response unit made a forced entry into the apartment.